White Willow

by Gudrun Maybaum
February 2002

Common name: White Willow
Botanical name: Salix alba
Family name: Salicaceae

Starting with the Chinese in about 500 B.C., white willow has been
mentioned in the herbal lore of many countries as treatment for countless
problems. In early Greece, it was used by the physicians Galen, Hippocrates and Dioscorides for pain and fever. The list of its uses expanded over the centuries into a remedy for chills, headaches, rheumatism, as a valued nerve sedative and much more.

Native North Americans used it by steeping the bark and twigs in water to
make tea for general pain, rheumatism, fever, headaches and colds. Since it is a close relative to the cinchona bark from South America, the British
started using white willow as a remedy for malaria in the middle of 1700. In
the early 1900s, European chemists isolated the salicin from white willow
and converted it into salicylic acid. At the end of that century, a way was
found to produce salicylic acid synthetically, and thus aspirin was born.
Due to the popularity of aspirin, white willow was used less and less
and almost forgotten.

There are over 300 species of willow trees, only a few of which are used for medicinal purposes. The best known and most widely used one is white willow, which is found in central and southern Europe, North America and Asia. White willow likes the vicinity of streams and grows to 35-75 ft.

Medicinally, the inner bark's active ingredients are: phenolic and
flovonoid glycosides, which are astringent; salicylates, which are fever
reducing and anti-inflammatory; and tannins, which are presumed to be
responsible for relieving gastrointestinal disturbances and reducing tumors
in the stomach, colon and rectum.

More and more people are experiencing side effects from aspirin usage,
including pain, bleeding or gastrointestinal discomfort. White willow is
reported to have fewer side effects and seems to be much milder on the
body, especially the stomach. The liver and the gastric flora of the body
converts white willow gradually into salicylic acid. Although this process
can take hours, once absorbed it lasts hours longer than aspirin. So today,
white willow is gaining in popularity as an alternative for aspirin. The
British Herbal Compendium lists it for colds, influenza, and rheumatic and
arthritic conditions. In other European countries it is also used for muscle
sprains, tendonitis, toothache, headaches, fevers, menstrual cramps, muscle aches, osteoarthritis, bursitis, to stop vomiting, and more. In addition, it is taken worldwide for such disorders as gout, angina, neuralgia, colds, diarrhea, ulcers and mental irritation. A white willow extract is helpful for washing inflamed or infected eyes.

Some doctors recommend aspirin for reducing the risk of heart attacks and
stroke because of the reduced risk of blood clots. Because the salicin
contents of white willow bark varies, it has not been determined if white
willow has the same effect.

Case studies

Because of its nerve sedative, astringent and anti-inflammatory effects, I
usually give white willow whenever I have an injured bird.

Once I woke up at night because Stumpy, my one-footed budgie, was flapping his wings, panic-stricken in his cage. He had caught his stump in the cage. For a normal bird foot, this would not have been possible, but the cage manufacturer didn't know that Stumpy has only one foot. The end of his stump was already very swollen. I finally managed to get him free, but noticed that he no longer used his stump to walk on and I was afraid he had pulled a joint out of place. So, the next morning we went to the vet. She thought he had only bruised himself and wanted to give me aspirin. I told her that I would prefer to give him white willow and she immediately agreed.

So for the next week, Stumpy got one drop of white willow twice a day in his beak. For about the next two months, I gave him five drops in his drinking water.

References:
Herbal Medicine by Sharol Tilgner,N.D.
The Herbal Handbook by David Hoffmann
The Way of Herbs by Michael Tierra, L.Ac.,O.M.D.
Todays Herbal Health by Louise Tenney, M.H.

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/w/wilwhi22.html
http://qualitycounts.com/fp/bwwillowext.html
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/g2603/0007/2603000734/p1/article.html
http://gic.simplenet.com/dr/herb/whitew.htm